


Bloodstream

by ChosenOne



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 11:51:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15605682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChosenOne/pseuds/ChosenOne
Summary: Post-Chosen. Spike is in Hell and Buffy is determined to get him out. She may be the Slayer, but does she harness enough power to overcome the obstacles they have planned for her? She’s been in the Hellmouth before, so how different can Hell be?





	Bloodstream

**Author's Note:**

> Beta’d By Callie8M over on Elysian Fields.

Late at night, when she allowed herself to dwell on such things, Buffy wasn’t sure what she missed most about Sunnydale. Some days it was her house, her room, her bed that Hank had bought for her on her thirteenth birthday. After endless nights of slaying, she knew that she could always count on her bed to take away the aches and pains. She would crawl underneath the covers, feel cozy and warm, and forget the fact that she was living on the mouth of Hell. Her room was her only safe haven; she missed that.

Other times, she missed slaying. She still technically slayed, of course, but only a vamp or two per night. Vampires weren’t very fond of Italy, it seemed. And the ones that were there mostly got taken care of by the younger Slayers, which meant way less action for Buffy. In Sunnydale, even on her worst night, she still managed to dust at least four vampires. At the time, it had seemed like a chore, but at least it never left her to walk home feeling antsy.

She also missed the Magic Box, even though it was long gone before Sunnydale became a massive crater in the ground. She missed the annual Scooby meetings; Xander cracking jokes in a non-joking situation, Willow offering to fix everything with magic, Anya being candidly sexual, Tara’s stuttering, Dawn trying her hardest to be an adult and failing miserably, Giles wiping his glasses against his shirt ferociously, and Spike in the corner dropping sarcastic remarks.

Spike. God, did she miss Spike; his grin that was both infuriatingly sexy and just plain infuriating, the curl of his tongue behind his teeth, the way his nostrils flared, his smirk, his snark, him. When he had left Sunnydale to receive his soul, her life had become increasingly dull without him in it. She knew he’d come back. It was months before he finally did, but she knew he would, eventually. He always did. Now, he was gone, really gone. And her life was back to being dark and tedious.

Dawn was attending her last year of high school here in Italy, much to the teenager’s disappointment. Buffy had to hear on many occasions how much Dawn would rather be training to become a watcher than be stuck in a classroom learning algebra.

Giles was in England as the head of the Watcher’s Council. Last she heard, Willow was in New Orleans practicing witchcraft with a well-known coven. Apparently that place was like heaven to witches and warlocks. Faith and Wood were in Cleveland defending the Hellmouth. Buffy couldn’t help but be jealous of her sister Slayer; at least Faith never got bored living there. And Xander, he had decided to restart his failed backpacking trip across America. Buffy understood his need to be alone with his grief after losing Anya. Often, she wished she could do the same thing.

All of the potentials – all of the Slayers were split up around the world. When Buffy originally came to Italy after the battle against the First, she had been ecstatic. She no longer had to worry about being the only one defending the world from evil. She could finally rest. Maybe even go back to college or visit Disney World.

But the novelty of not being the only Slayer in the world had quickly worn off.

Buffy was brought out of her musings by the rapid knocking at the door. Looking down at her watch, Buffy frowned. Dawn wasn’t supposed to be home from school until three o’clock.

Standing up from her uncomfortable position on the couch, she stretched out her limbs and made her way over to the door. Blinking in surprise, Buffy couldn’t help the excited shriek that escaped from her lips when saw who was on the other side. Willow stood there with a gigantic smile on her face.

“Willow!” Buffy embraced her long-time friend in a hug. “What in the world are you doing here?”

Willow lightly tapped her shoulder. “Uh, Buffy? Can’t breath.”

Buffy released her quickly and gave an apologetic smile. “Sorry, sorry! I tend to do that a lot, huh?”

Buffy motioned for Willow to follow her into the kitchen. She perched herself on a chair at the table as Buffy went looking in the fridge for snacks.

“Are you coming from New Orleans? You must be starving. I have mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, leftover pizza from this really cool place down the street. It’ll make your mouth water it’s–“

“Buffy,” Willow interrupted with a laugh, “I think I’ll just have some water.”

Buffy nodded her head. She was totally being ramble-girl. Tossing Willow the water bottle, which she caught with ease, Buffy sat in the chair across from her.

“So, what’s the sitch?”

“You think the only reason I came here to see my best friend is because something majorly apocalyptic is going to happen?” Willow unscrewed the lid off her the water bottle and took a sip.

Buffy raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, waiting for the inevitable.

“Well,” Willow admitted, “there is a reason why I’m here. Nothing hefty! Giles wanted me to meet with his watcher-friend to talk about this demon. He wants me to track it down; he thinks it’s somewhere in Italy. I just thought I’d stop by, see you and Dawnie while I’m in town.”

Buffy sighed. She should have known Willow wouldn’t have gone out of her way to see her and Dawn unless something of a supernatural variety was involved. After they had closed the Hellmouth, the tension between them had been palpable. That last year had put a strain on their friendships; Giles trying to kill Spike, her almost killing Anya, Spike and Anya hooking up, and Willow trying to end the world. Somehow, they managed to get through all of that and remain semi-close, until they had kicked her out of her own home. That was when the string had been cut, severed, and tension ensued.

“Locate?” Buffy knew what Willow meant by that. She was going to do the mojo and wanted to do it in her safe and non-smelly house.

“Yes. Possibly here?” Willow looked hopefully. “It’s not a difficult spell. It’ll only take a couple minutes.”

She bit her lip. Buffy didn’t care if the spell was difficult or not. However, she did care if the spell was stinky.

“Does it smell?” She was really trying to make friends with her neighbors, and releasing that repugnant smell into the building was not going to help.

“Like daisies and Fruit Roll-Ups!” Willow replied helpfully.

Buffy narrowed her eyes. Willow’s eyebrows were raised incredibly high – which meant that she was lying.

Sighing, Buffy relented, “Fine. You can do it here.”

Willow gave a smile so big that Buffy wondered if her cheeks hurt. Even after everything, it was still hard to say ‘no’ to her friends.

*****

As she prepared the spell, Willow brought Buffy up to date on everything she’d missed. Apparently, ever since Quentin Travers had gone and Giles had taken his place, people had been lining up left and right to become apart of the Watcher’s Council. Some of them new, others retired. Willow then told her about how fast the Slayers were improving. Rona and Vi were training their own group in Miami. Willow had settled down in New Orleans to learn new spells from the ‘best of the best’. And her and Kennedy were no longer together - thank God for that. Not like Buffy hated Kennedy, she just disliked her very much. She’d never tell Willow that, of course.

Buffy listened. But when it was her turn to tell Willow all the things she’d done since the fight against the First, she was at a loss for words. She hadn’t done anything. She’d just been wandering around Italy, sitting in the apartment, the hours dragging on and on. Even Dawn had some exciting things going on in her life. She was about to graduate high school, she even had a boyfriend! A very nice, very human boyfriend. So, that’s what Buffy opted to tell Willow, glossing over her own lack of a social scene. She told her so much about Dawn that she sounded like a proud mother.

After some much needed girl talk and catching up, Buffy sat cross legged on the living room floor and watched as Willow finished setting up the spell.

The red-headed witch sat in the middle of a circle of dust. Four lit candles were surrounding her, and laid out in front was a plain white t-shirt. Clutched in her left hand was a piece of cloth.

“What is that?” Buffy asked.

“Kayla was fighting the demon we were looking for and managed to get a piece of his shirt before he got away. This will help me figure out where he’s at.”

Buffy didn’t bother asking who Kayla was. It wasn’t like she was necessarily in the ballclub to know even half of the Slayers names. Hell, she’d be lucky to name ten.

Willow closed her eyes and started twirling the cloth in circles above the t-shirt. “Find me Lasus.”

Huh, that spell wasn’t as complicated as the other ones she’d seen Willow do. Buffy watched in fascination as the candles grew bigger and then suddenly went out.

“Ah ha! Got you now.”

Buffy crawled over to Willow, mindful of the dust, and looked down at the shirt.

“Where is he?” Buffy asked. The shirt had lines going throughout it that made it difficult to understand what she was looking at.

Willow pointed at the top left section. “This is the world. Each dot represents a different country.” Pointing at the tiny dot in the middle, she said, “This is Italy, and you see how it’s glowing?”

Buffy nodded her head.

“Well, that means he’s here. Somewhere.”

“What about the rest of the shirt?” The shirt was split into three different sections of dots. So, if one section was earth, what were the other two?

“This one,” Willow pointed at the top right section, “is Heaven. If he were there then all of the dots would light up.” Willow moved her finger to the bottom left. “And this is Hell. Each dot represents a different Hell dimension. But if he were there, then I wouldn’t really have to worry about tracking him down anymore.” Willow frowned. “Darn.”

There was only one Heaven but multiple Hells. Did that mean there was only one God? Buffy didn’t remember much from her time in Heaven, only that she felt warm and safe. Like she was complete and she had no worries anymore. But she couldn’t remember ever meeting Jesus Christ. You’d think the girl that had risked her life for the sake of the world would at least get an invitation to meet the great holiness.

She felt the vibration against her butt before she heard the ringtone. Giving Willow an apologetic smile, she walked out of the circle and answered.

“Hey Dawnie. Everything okay?”

“It’s raining and there’s no way I’m walking in this,” was her sisters muffled reply, followed by the sound of thunder in the background. “I’m serious! I didn’t spend two hours curling my hair for nothing.”

Buffy looked at Willow. “Wills is here. I don’t think she’ll mind waiting while I pick you up.”

Willow’s head popped up. “How about I go get her?”

Buffy chewed her bottom lip. That would make things a lot easier and give her time to get the stench out of her apartment before her landlord had a fit and tried to evict her.

Dawn started squealing through the phone. “Oh my god! Yes, have Willow come get me!”

Buffy sighed. “Fine. But don’t give her any trouble. I trust her driving almost as much as I trust mine.”

After Dawn’s reply, Buffy hung out and turned to her friend.

Willow stepped out of the circle and began putting on her jacket. “Are you coming?”

Buffy shook her head. “I think I might stay and pick up. Dawn’s high school is just down the block on Perkins Street.”

Willow frowned, but didn’t argue. “Okay. I’ll be back in a minute.” She turned and walked out of the apartment.

Buffy looked around at the mess in front of her. Hmmm, what to start with first… the candles dripping wax or the dust penetrating deep into her carpet? Buffy internally groaned as the smell of it all hit her nose. Yup, she was definitely getting evicted.

She began picking up the candles. Magic had always fascinated her since she first learned about it. Well, it did for a time until said magic almost got her killed. She had even turned into a rat once, which was a memory she never wanted to relive. Buffy looked down at the shirt. She thought it must be cool to be able to find anybody you wanted in the whole universe just with the saying of some mumbo jumbo. She wondered if…

No. Buffy shook her head to clear it. Even if she did want to try it, she wasn’t a witch. Spells were so not in her domain.

But she had gotten all chanty on her own once before, three years ago when she was trying to find out if somebody put a spell on her mother that was making her sick.

...could she?

The only way to find out was to try. And Giles had once told her, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, kill them again.’ Okay, so maybe killing things and doing magic were two completely different things, but the concept was the same. Kinda.

Setting the candles back down, Buffy stood up and walked into her room. She started digging through her closet until she found the thing she was looking for… Spike’s bag. When they had left her house for the last time before setting out towards the Hellmouth, they all packed one duffle bag full of stuff in case her plan didn’t work and they had to quickly boot it to Los Angeles. Scuffling through the bag, she pulled out two faded black shirts, two rings, a chain necklace, a pair of jeans, and his lighter. Buffy brought the gray Zippo lighter up into eyesight and began flickering it open and shut. It seemed like it wasn’t that long ago that they used to play their little game. He’d leave it laying around the crypt, and she’d snatch it, wait for him to notice she had it. Then he would come back, take it from her, and show her something sexually new that she didn’t even know existed, over and over again. In the end he always won, which frustrated Buffy. It was why she kept the game going, maybe.

Holding the lighter tightly in her hand, she walked back into the room and sat in the middle of the circle. She used it to light the four candles and closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing. Holding her hand up, she began moving the lighter in circles over the t-shirt, and copying Willow’s words from earlier in a whisper, “Find me Spike.”

Opening her eyes, Buffy looked down at the t-shirt and gasped. Her heart pounded in her chest.

The dots in the bottom left section were glowing.

Anger rose in Buffy’s chest. He sacrificed himself to save the world, and this was how the Powers That Be repay him? By sending him to Hell?! For him to be tortured for eternity?

The words torture and eternity stuck in her mind like a tape recorder on replay. Bile rose up in her throat and she barely made it to the bathroom before it came out. Grabbing a piece of toilet paper, she wiped her mouth in frustration and flushed the toilet.

He was down there getting tortured for wanting to become a better man. For saving the world?

’Confess your sins before God and ask for forgiveness, and all shall be forgiven.’ What the hell ever happened to that saying? Maybe God wasn’t real. Maybe it was just the Powers That Be who ruled everything.

Eternity. Forever. He would be down there forever, tortured forever. It would never stop. Never end.

Buffy frowned.

Or could it?


End file.
